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Service Management in

20/20Executive Predictions from Ron Muns

It won’t be long before Siri, or a version of Siri-meets-Watson, will be able to understand our technical questions and find the answers or solutions not only to our technical support questions but also to many other types of situations. Whether we’re asking about a business process, searching for a product,

fi xing a technical issue, checking stock options, or try-ing to understand our benefi ts packages, quicker, more automated, more robust, and easier-to-use self-service options will be able to provide answers on demand.

By 2020, much of what we see today will be, in a word, more: more integrated, more accepted, more automated, more predictive. Business as we know it, and the stan-dards of support for that business, will change drastically, expanding to the point where IT teams will do more than just enable the business to innovate—they’ll be partners in innovation.

To make this leap, we’ll see an evolution and expansion in all of the areas touched by service management, and we’ll see a shift in the dynamics.

• Technology user experience: Employee productivity will emerge as a top ITSM objective.

• The ITSM workforce: The offi ce landscape will change as the population of remote workers surges.

• Industry-accepted process standards: Integrated processes will foster true collaboration.

• Support technologies: IT support leaders will become innovators as technology advances.

Customer: Siri, why am I getting an error when I try to send email from my work account on my iPhone?

Siri: I do not understand. Would you like me to search the web for the answer?

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Although many trends are in full swing, we’ve only just

begun to see the potential in some of these areas.

Employee productivity will emerge as a top ITSM objective.

Today’s tech-savvy users are capable of fi nding answers

online or through self-help, but not without effort. Often,

after they’ve made multiple attempts to navigate systems

and haven’t found the answers they seek, they give up and

call support. The fi rst question they hear is, “How may I help

you?” This forces them to start all over again.

By 2020, this will be an ancient method of support. Users

want convenience, speed, simplicity, and effortless answers.

They don’t want to wait. They expect one method of support

to pick up where the other left off. In the near future, if Siri/

Watson technology can’t fi nd the answer, then all previous

interactions will be captured and delivered to the support

agent in real time so the agent can take the next step and fi nd

the answer quickly, without backtracking.

The agent will have access to information on the environ-

ment, the location, the history of the asset, and the history

of the person using the technology, all without needing to

ask the user. Problem resolution won’t rely as much on the

technical ability of the user as it will on system integration,

ease of use, and well-trained professionals who know how to

access and use information.

BYOD will be history, and ADAW (any device, anywhere)

will take its place. Users will customize their devices with

apps that increase their productivity and make their lives

easier. They’ll have instant access to their information in

the cloud. Security will be complex and smart. It will require

proof of identity on fi rst use, and it will know whether a given

user has accessed a particular device before.

Business apps and tools will be integrated with personal

social media, all in the pursuit of employee productivity.

Corporations’ internal offerings will no longer lag behind

consumer offerings, as they do today, and users will have

instant, simplifi ed access to apps on their devices of choice.

The offi ce landscape will change as the population of remote workers surges.

The integration of information, knowledge, technology,

and processes will change the offi ce landscape. Instead of

using the ability to work from home as an incentive only, it

will become the norm. With new priorities focused tightly on

employee productivity, nine-to-fi ve schedules will be a thing

of the past. Systems that allow workers to trade or negotiate

their work schedules will be commonplace. Support workers

will have more fl exibility in their schedules and will be able

to work from anywhere, on any device. By 2020, workers will

value this fl exibility even more highly than compensation.

These support professionals, who enjoy problem solving,

will be more challenged and better equipped to do their jobs

well. Tightly integrated data from a variety of sources will

eliminate redundant steps and the need to re-enter infor-

mation. And because routine requests will be automated,

these workers will be able to use their logic and skills to

interact with users, other areas of IT, and partner with the

business—even with androids!

Integrated processes will foster true collaboration.

By 2020, there will be industry-wide integration of

standards and processes. Best practices and standards

have already enabled organizations to gain efficiencies,

decrease the cost of doing business, and improve services.

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But this is just the foundation. In the future, processes

will be integrated both within and between organizations.

Organizations have long recognized the importance of

processes, standards, and certifi cations, yet they continue to

struggle with implementation and maximizing the potential of

their people. By 2020, process implementation will be stream-

lined and refi ned. Certifi cation will enable employees to drive

service effi ciency and improvement. Industry models and

standards will be modifi ed to meet corporate requirements.

The business’s goals and needs will drive IT innovation.

Communication between departments, organizations, and

vendors will no longer rely on the initiative of individuals, nor

be at the mercy of human error. Processes and tools will be

fully integrated—across the business, not just IT—connect-

ing people to answers, people to people, groups to groups.

With more integration and standardization around how

organizations communicate with each other, people will

work together better. Ultimately, organizations won’t need

to have a technical support representative and a business

process expert. They’ll be one and the same.

Knowledge management is key, but not traditional knowl-

edge engineering. Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS),

where the experiences and knowledge of many are collected,

combined, enhanced, and made available in terms the user

understands, will be the way we solve issues. As more people

interact with that information, the accumulated knowledge

will expand and ease-of-use will be signifi cantly improved.

Everything will start with a search—just like Siri/Watson!

We’re already seeing evidence of this today. When we

search for information on Google, we often fi nd answers

from other users in wikis, on blogs, or on message boards.

By 2020, Siri/Watson will lead the way in performing those

initial searches and connecting users with solutions. Live

agents will focus on resolving more complex issues, instead

of the routine, repetitive issues many of them focus on today.

They will become business support professionals, instead of

IT or departmental support professionals.

IT support leaders will become innovators as technology advances.

The automation and integration of applications, systems,

data, processes, and knowledge are the keys to accelerating

employee productivity. Although some service management

tools, like Cherwell Service Management (CSM), currently

offer many automatable and “integratable” modules, CSM is

pushing the envelope. The next version, scheduled for release

in the summer of 2013, includes pioneering technology like

location awareness, which allows support professionals to

interact with what’s physically around them, and business

intelligence, which helps support professionals understand

their data so they can make smarter, data-driven business

decisions. However, only companies with mature processes

and holistic approaches to IT, or those working toward that

end, will be able to leverage those tools fully.

In 2020, IT will drive innovation and organizations will

see it as a true business partner. Integrating processes and

technology across the organization will break down the IT

silos as well, maximizing integration. This will enable the

successful use of autonomics.

Systematically, organizations can be proactive about

making sure that every aspect of the infrastructure is up

and running. By integrating the confi guration management

database, the system will be able to perform regular self-

checks to confi rm that all systems are working as expected.

At the user level, when an automated system notices a

condition, it could use geolocation tools to inform the user

of the issue and either send a replacement device automati-

cally or direct the user to the nearest distributor, depot, or

fi eld technician. Rather than learning of a condition from

the user fi rst, which causes knee-jerk, reactive support, IT

will be able to take proactive, corrective action.

Predictive analytics will fi nd correlations between seem-

ingly unrelated data (e.g., incident data, network traffi c

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data, user profi les, weather, device features/versions, appli-

cations/versions used, operating systems/versions, SLAs).

This will improve IT’s ability to accurately predict fail-

ure before it happens, trend user activity, and identify the

staffi ng skills required in a given period, and make better

decisions and recommendations as to which technologies

should be purchased and which should be retired.

2020 in 20/20: The Future in Focus

So what’s the bottom line? By 2020, the focus on employee

productivity will tighten, forcing organizational dynamics

to change. Because the IT support organization has been the

touchpoint for the IT community, this group will become

the touchpoint for all things that affect employee productiv-

ity. With robotics, autonomics, unlimited knowledge access,

and Siri/Watson technologies, organizations will be able

to build a single command center for employee productiv-

ity—the Employee Productivity Command Center—a faster,

simpler unit that is more robust, more proactive, and more

productive than today’s IT service desk.

Who better to drive this initiative than ITSM support

teams? The service desk will become this command center,

a true single point of contact (SPOC) for all employee needs,

questions, resources requirements, research, policies, pro-

cedures, human resources, and collaboration. It will use

a single, integrated tool set, and it will be the fi rst line of

defense against cyberattacks. These teams won’t be large, but

they will do so much more. The opportunities are limitless.

Continual service improvement will be the standard mode

of operation, focusing on employee productivity across

the whole business. Productivity will become the measure

of success, not how many calls we answered, how long we

talked, or how many calls were abandoned. These metrics

will be used to drive effi ciency within the command center,

but they will not be used to measure value to the business.

In addition to their technical responsibilities, command

center analysts (human and automated) will organize

knowledge and help employees fi nd the answers to any

question and solve any problem. With Siri/Watson as the

fi rst tier of support, future business support professionals

will be true partners, innovators, and productivity coaches.

So, we end where we began, but with 20/20 vision.

Customer: Siri, why am I getting an error when I try to send email from my work account on my iPhone?

Siri/Watson: Because the outgoing mail server SMTP is incorrect. I’ve updated it, and your emails are now being released from your outbox. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Based on an interview with Ron Muns, HDI’s founder and Cherwell Software board member. Written by Rae Ann Bruno, president of Business Training Solutions, Inc., on behalf of Cherwell Software.

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About Cherwell Software

Positioned on the 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for ITSSM Tools and recognized by

Forrester as one of the top three enterprise SaaS ITSM tools worldwide, Cherwell

Software is unique within the ITSM software industry. As a privately held company with

no debt or public funding, Cherwell’s primary objective is to create innovative software

that meets the needs of our customers. Founded and led by some of the industry’s most

distinguished leaders—including HDI’s founder, Ron Muns—Cherwell was built upon

the premise that if we listen to our customers, care about and strive to meet their needs,

and provide quality products and extraordinary customer care, then our company will

stand the test of time, all while having a little fun and building great relationships along

the way. Visit www.Cherwell.com to learn more.

Cherwell Service Management TM is a trademark of Cherwell Software.

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